Thursday, January 07, 2010

C-J article on the STUPID JCPS decision

Here's the article on the STUPID decision that JCPS made this morning. Listen, I value education. Believe me, I do. But if there's one thing I value more, it's safety. Safety includes not sending out vehicles on roads where you KNOW that they have not been plowed. Furthermore, KY 22 is a disaster when it snows because of all the curves between Seminary and Hurstbourne Parkway. It's horrid. I avoid it when I can.

So why did they, when a number of school districts in surrounding counties closed — and when the eventual snow wound up forcing schools to close early?

“It’s my feeling that if we can get them to and from school safely, it’s best to have them in school,” said Superintendent Sheldon Berman. “This is not a major storm. I know it is hard for people, and we try to be as safe as possible.”

Not a major storm? The weathermen were talking about it ALL FRICKING WEEK. How is that not major? This isn't Chicago. Chicago is prepared for these storms. Louisville isn't prepared. It's all talk but when push comes to shove, the side roads in the suburbs, where buses MUST drive through, are usually not plowed.

Berman on Thursday predicted that school would be in session Friday, although a final decision might not come until the early morning hours.

No matter what decision is made, he said, it’s hard to please everyone. Some parents have more disruption from work when school is canceled, officials said.

Umm, we have another one to two more inches on top of a refreeze that will come overnight. Were you expecting some sort of lawsuit.

“We’re going to have parents who complain that the kids were in school and if we had canceled school, we would have had parents complain that we should have had school,” he said. “It’s never an easy call.”

I'd rather have the ones complaining about holding classes. The ones complaining about cancelling are the ones that don't want to take off of work to take care of their kids. Regardless, there's always a negative. I'd take safety first.

Officials said they’re at the mercy of forecasters and the weather. Each snowy or icy morning around 4 a.m., 18 district staffers drive around the county to check routes to help decide whether roads are safe, officials said.

Rick Caple, who heads the district’s bus fleet, said the National Weather Service on Thursday morning initially said the main brunt of the snow would start arriving between 8 and 9 a.m. After officials decided to hold school, the weather service changed the projected time to between 6 and 7 a.m.

See? There's your problem. YOU ARE NOT CHECKING THE RADAR!! Checking the effing radar for crying out loud. What a road looks like at 4 AM is NOT what it's going to look like hours later.

“We thought we could get to schools on time, and we pretty much did,” he said, noting there were no major bus accidents and only minor delays.

Umm, there were several non-injury accidents, including SIX JCPS vehicles.

As conditions deteriorated as expected during the day, officials called off school an hour early to avoid long afternoon delays.

Morons. Why hold class when you decide to dismiss early, thus forcing parents to LEAVE work if they made it in and deal with traffic on their own right.

“We decided to release students an hour early to make sure that they can get home in a timely way and avoid the rush hour traffic,” Berman said.

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Some info:Though a Kentucky Wildcats, St. Louis Cardinals and Indianapolis Colts fan, The Kentucky Democrat is currently based in Chicago. Solzman is a social commentator on sports, politics, and entertainment. Solzman currently writes a number of book reviews for The Kentucky Democrat in the categories of sports, humor, entertainment, politics, American history, and select fiction and science-fiction.

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